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Seeking Your Feedback on a Beat Our Board Design Challenge - Grand Prize $5,000

rscasny

I've been in discussions with a component supplier who would like to sponsor a Design Challenge.

But its vision of the Design Challenge is a little different than how element14 typically administers a Design Challenge. I want to tell you the details below. I would really appreciate you voting in the polls and offering feedback on the challenge. Thanks.

Randall
-element14 Community Team


What is the Beat Our Board Design Challenge?

The goal of PI Beat Our Board Design Challenge is for the participants to design a board that improves or beats the sponsor's DER-953 board. Below, I've posted a short video and a schematic of this RDK, as well as the datasheet.

image

How Applicants are Selected as one of the Top 10

The Top 10 submissions get to advance to the next stage and will be given the DER-953Q plus a $250 shopping cart to buy materials – fulfilled by Farnell. The sponsor or its representatives will judge the finalists. They are awarding $5,000 to the grand prize winner and $2,500 to the 2nd place winner.

The enrollment period will last 6 weeks.

What they need to show to be one of the top 10

To be selected as one of the Top 10, the applicant needs to show the following:
• Topology / switch type
• Transformer size
• Preliminary schematic

The length of the challenge is about 6 months (ends June 2024).

Here are the criteria to win:

• Cannot use InnoSwitch
• Beat the efficiency – 10%, 25%, 50% and 100% no-load
• 40-500 V DC input
• Size/ volume of board must be same size or smaller
• Must meet thermals – 85 degrees Celsius – no heatsink
• No optocouplers
• Component count
• No-load consumption
• Automotive qualified components only
• Transformer exempt
• Up to and no more than a 6-layer PCB
• Specify PCB stack up weight per sq foot- 2oz 1oz 1oz 1oz 2: Maximum copper thickness on top and bottom layers
• Overload power current limit = 8.1 A

What do you think of this challenge? I invite you to offer your thoughts in the comments section below.

I also invite you to vote in the following polls:



  • in reply to DAB

    I think it is the unusual optics of the challenge that seem to raise IP issues. Every project published on a forum has the same IP issues. If someone develops some IP they want to protect, they simply wouldn't publish it on a forum - no risk and no stress involved in that course of action.

    I don't think the manufacturer is fishing for some brilliant new design that doesn't even use their product. They are just taking a fun approach to illustrate that it is hard to develop a circuit that outperforms their product. And they are forking out some nice no-risk incentives to drum up interest and entice members to participate.

    It should be a lot of fun for designers. I'm a little mystified why everyone seems to think it is scarier than any other design challenge. Except of course working with high voltage is scary... Japanese ogre

  • For the level of effort and research required, there are a lot of projects I would rather address than this. I'd have just enough interest to learn from the people that participate in this project. 

  • Transformer size for the top ten and transformer exempt to win.

  • Just seeing this now. Yeah - they seem to be pushing for a ready made complete product fully tested and validated. Many contests here are complete when running on a breadboard. The requirements really push this to a very high level. It would be fun to play with parts of the circuit though. Perhaps if it was broken down to smaller parts or lower requirements I’d be more interested in it.

  • I have neither the skills, knowledge or experience to take on such a challenge, “And For That Reason, I’m Out”. Barbara Corcoran Shark Tank host uses this catchphrase when she chooses not to pursue investing.

    Something just doesn’t sit well with me about the approach to this challenge. I’m struggling with leveraging the community for the lion’s share of the benefits going to the sponsor. The sponsor reaps the benefits from the merits of an open-source community without having to invest.

    image

    Is it possible they gave marketing an engineering problem to solve? The brainstorming session came up with DER (Design Engineering Roulette). Participants invest their own resources against the house. You can bet as much as you like and often as you like because it’s fun and challenging for you! If the ball lands on your number, you collect the $5000 prize.

    I never played Design Challenge for the prize, “And For That Reason, I’m Out”